


Together and Apart

by talesofsymphoniac



Series: Heartbeat [1]
Category: Tales of Series, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Childhood, Epilogue, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries, Post-Canon, Post-Game(s), Pre-Canon, Pre-Game(s), Sormikweek2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 05:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7745503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talesofsymphoniac/pseuds/talesofsymphoniac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"When Gramps explained what the strange pulsing in Sorey’s chest was, Mikleo understood for the first time how different humans and seraphim really were. If Sorey’s heart stopped, blood would stop pumping through his body, and just like that, he would be gone."</p><p>Written for Day Five of Sormik Week 2016: Absence</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together and Apart

Seraphim didn’t have heartbeats.

Mikleo had always known that his best friend was different from the rest of their family in Elysia; he was a human in a village of seraphim. It wasn’t important, rarely brought up in conversation, but Mikleo knew it was the reason Sorey became irritable if he went too long without food or sleep, just like it was the reason Sorey didn’t have any elemental abilities. Still, it wasn’t that big of a deal. They ate and slept and played together just the same.

When Gramps explained to the two curious boys what the strange pulsing in Sorey’s chest was, Mikleo understood for the first time how different humans and seraphim really were. If Sorey’s heart stopped, blood would stop pumping through his body, and just like that, he would be gone.

Sorey didn’t seem to take this revelation quite as seriously as Mikleo did. He shrugged it off, and Mikleo’s darker thoughts were forgotten as the two spent the next few hours experimenting with Sorey’s heartbeat. They found out that running fast made his heart pound faster, but it would slow down if he stopped to rest for a while. With Mikleo’s hand wrapped around his wrist, Sorey counted time while Mikleo kept track of each beat.

* * *

A few months later, down in the ruins, everything went dark. Sorey and Mikleo cried out, finding each other by touch and clinging. Once they’d found it, Sorey pushed fruitlessly against the wall that had closed behind them. Maybe if he’d been older and stronger, he could have pushed it back, but it was much too heavy for a ten-year-old boy to move. Mikleo joined his attempts, to no avail. Finally, exhausted, they sat down on the cold stone floor of the ruins.

“We’re stuck!” Sorey’s voice bounced around the hallway. Next to him, Sorey felt Mikleo curl into a ball, like he did when he was nervous.

“It’s okay,” he said in a shaky voice. “Gramps will come find us.”

Sorey shook his head hopelessly. “How? He doesn’t even know we’re here!” Gramps had specifically told them they weren’t allowed to go in the ruins by themselves, so they’d had to sneak away. Sorey shuddered; the pitch-black darkness made breathing feel difficult. His chest felt like it was being crushed.

“He’s Gramps,” Mikleo said, arms wrapping around his knees tightly. “He’s really smart. He’ll find us.”

Tears of panic were coming to Sorey’s eyes, but he was determined not to let Mikleo know that. “Y-yeah,” he said, his voice cracking painfully.

Mikleo heard, though, and must have felt his trembling, too. He let go of his knees and pulled Sorey into a hug instead. Sorey’s breathing was heavy and irregular from trying so hard not to cry. Mikleo, too, was shaking.

A few minutes passed this way. Then, out of nowhere, Mikleo said, “Your heart’s beating really quickly.”

Sorey struggled to speak. “Oh… y-yeah. I guess it’s because I’m scared.”

Mikleo was quiet for about a minute. “It’s slowing down… I think.”

“It is?”

He felt Mikleo nod. “Yeah. Does that mean you feel less scared?”

Sorey sniffed. “Maybe a little.”

“Good,” Mikleo said boldly. “As long as we stay together, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Sorey perked up, and Mikleo could feel him nodding profusely. They held each other’s hands firmly in the dark, speaking brave words to chase away the fear, until Gramps found them hours later.

* * *

One day, Sorey’s heart stopped completely.

Mikleo flashed to his side when he didn’t get up at the end of a particularly difficult battle and immediately got to work with his healing artes. A shining light glowed over his hands, but still Sorey did not move, his spell completely ineffective. Without a pause, he scrambled for Sorey’s bag, digging around for gels, potions, anything that might be of use. Nothing worked. On instinct, Mikleo thrust his hand at Sorey’s neck, finding the place where his pulse should have been, where it had always been before. He found nothing.

He was beginning to panic. Somewhere outside himself, he heard himself crying out Sorey’s name, his hand pressing deeper and deeper searching for a pulse, and then he had been pushed aside, and Alisha was kneeling in front of him. She clasped her hands together, pumping up and down on Sorey’s chest, and Mikleo may have lost track of events for a moment, but when he had recollected himself, Alisha was scolding Sorey for trying to sit up, and Sorey was painfully chuckling at something Lailah had said.

“Mikleo?” Alisha turned to him. “Sorey will need to rest at the inn for a few nights after an injury like this. Would you carry him again?”

Mikleo swallowed, nodding vaguely, and Sorey tried to sit up again. “I think I can make it to the inn, anyway…”

His slurred words were cut off by Mikleo grabbing his arm, lifting him up, and hefting him onto his back with surprising strength for one physically smaller. For once, Sorey didn’t put up a fight, for it was clear Mikleo would hear no argument.

* * *

“I’m fine now, honest,” he said later from his bed in the inn. Lailah and Alisha had since retired, giving Mikleo the responsibility to watch over Sorey, a task he performed tirelessly.

Mikleo glared. “Not a chance. You need time to recover.”

Sorey pouted, trying again to sit up. “I feel fine!” He cringed with pain, and Mikleo all but shoved him back into the bed. “You worry too much,” he moped.

“You idiot,” Mikleo said harshly. “Your heart _stopped._ Don’t you know what that means?” He felt unexpected tears prickling at his eyes, and turned away, crossing his arms petulantly.

Sorey had known him too long to be fooled by his posturing. “Mikleo…”

Words slipped out of his mouth, unbidden. “I didn’t know what to do. If Alisha hadn’t been there…” His voice sounded raw, hollow. He remembered his panic, the tearing fear, the way he’d nearly choked Sorey trying to find his heartbeat.

“She _was_ there, though,” Sorey said easily, trying to pacify him, and Mikleo felt another pang of… well. It wasn’t jealousy, not exactly, but a sense of separation that had been building up for some time now. Alisha had known how to take care of Sorey. Alisha was a human. Alisha was a princess and a knight, and her boundless reserve of cheer and idealism suited Sorey like a glove. Alisha carried a miniature copy of the Celestial Record, and spoke of ruins and exploration with the same glow Sorey had always had. Sorey hadn’t hesitated to make her his Squire, and why would he? She’d already managed to save his life where Mikleo would have failed, and Sorey would be dead, and all because in a panic he’d forgotten what he’d studied in those human books so long ago about how to restart a heart.

“Mikleo?” He jumped at his name and realized that Sorey had been trying to recapture his attention.

“Sorry, I must have spaced out,” he said. Sorey reached for his hand, and, startled, Mikleo allowed his hand to be pulled to Sorey’s neck, his body moving to lean over Sorey’s. Sorey’s warm hands adjusted his fingers until they rested directly above the again-strong pulse of his heart.

“See?” Sorey said, smiling, his hand still curled over Mikleo’s. “Still beating.”

Mikleo tried to return the smile, but it was weak. He suddenly felt exhausted, a rare feeling for a seraph. Sorey must have sensed this, his expression giving him away, because he pulled Mikleo closer, encouraging him to crawl into bed next to him, still fully dressed. Mikleo rested his head against Sorey’s chest, and Sorey’s arms wrapped around him.

“Does it ever bother you?” Mikleo whispered.

He felt Sorey cock his head. “What?”

“That I’m not human.” The words were spoken quietly into Sorey’s neck like a long-held confession. “I don’t even _have_ a heartbeat, Sorey.”

“I don’t care about that,” Sorey said firmly. “I know we’re different, but that’s why we have our dream, right? Humans and seraphim, coexisting.”

Mikleo paused. “I know. And I believe in that. But, still… maybe there are limits. If I’d been human, I might have known how to save you. As it is, left to me... you would have died.”

“You’re wrong,” Sorey shook his head, and Mikleo was taken aback by how hard his voice sounded. “Do you think I don’t know how many times you’ve _saved_ me?” He hesitated, fingers idly moving against Mikleo’s spine, a comforting gesture. “I don’t know what Gramps told you, but I’m not going anywhere without you. I know I was kind of an idiot before,” he said, and they both remembered their fight about Mikleo becoming a Sub Lord, “But I understand, now. Fulfilling my dream isn’t going to mean anything without you by my side, too.” His voice softened. “I thought you knew that.”

“Sorey…” Mikleo didn’t know what to say. His worries were not entirely soothed: Sorey may not intentionally leave him behind, but the truth was that humans aged and seraphim did not, and Mikleo could see no way around that. But for a moment, he was reminded of how it had felt to amatize with Sorey for the first time, feeling him so close, as if there were only the two of them in the world. “You scared me,” he breathed, and Sorey gripped him tighter.

“Sorry,” he said seriously. Mikleo suddenly felt calm in a way he had not since they had left Elysia. For now, Sorey was here, alive, and the way his heartbeat quickened when Mikleo pressed a kiss to his collarbone told him that he would not be leaving soon, not for anyone, human or seraph.

* * *

Hundreds of years later, Mikleo pressed his head into Sorey’s chest again, pulled out of the hole and into a crushing hug. He had so much to say; How much he'd waited for this, Sorey with him again, able to live out both of their lives together. That when Sorey had said he wasn’t going to leave him, he had been right, in the end. That he’d been waiting for him. That he loved him.

But everything he could say flew out of his mind as familiar arms wrapped around him and he heard a sound he’d thought he’d never hear again. He felt the first tears dripping down his cheeks, and he found himself laughing, of all things. “You still have a heartbeat.”


End file.
